The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 602 Heart-pounding Panic

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival.

Early that morning, around dawn, on the west bank of the Asuri River, in the chariot formations of the Shenshu Camp and Shenji Camp, the soldiers began cooking glutinous rice and making zongzi (sticky rice dumplings).

They not only prepared the food for themselves, but Emperor Wanli also planned to have them prepare more to send to the Sichuan army soldiers.

Around noon, when the sun was high in the sky, batches of fresh zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) were cooked.

Emperor Wanli even ordered someone to serve a plate of it as a staple food.

Even though it's a holiday, he wasn't stingy; he even specially ordered someone to prepare a large table of delicacies.

The family was enjoying their meal of zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) in the large tent where they were specially set up for dining when Qi Jiguang suddenly rushed in, his face beaming with joy. He bowed and said, "Your Majesty, good news! Liangyu and his men have discovered the main force of the Jurchens!"

How many days has it been?

Are the main forces of the Jurchens so easily discovered?
Upon hearing this, Wanli was overjoyed and asked, "How did they find out?"

They were lucky.

Qi Jiguang explained in detail: "According to their urgent report, around 9 a.m. yesterday, they discovered that tens of thousands of Jianzhou Jurchens were lying in ambush in the valley where they were supposed to camp."

They had barely charged forward when, after less than a quarter of an hour, the Jurchens began to flee frantically northward.

Liangyu and Qiancheng climbed to the top of the highest mountain beside the valley and looked around. They discovered that there were newly built stone fortresses more than ten miles to the north, and there were quite a few of them, numbering in the hundreds.

Based on the size and approximate number of the stone fortresses, they judged that those must be the main force of the Jurchens.

It turned out that the Jurchens themselves had come to ambush them, which is why they were discovered.

These two guys are really lucky; the Jurchens have actually delivered themselves to their doorstep.

Wanli nodded slightly, then suddenly realized something and asked in surprise, "Yuanjing, the south side of Yongle Mountain seems to be over a thousand miles away from here, right?"

Moreover, Liangyu and the others have been in the mountains for four or five days. Even if you could ride a horse at full speed in the mountains, it seems impossible for the news to travel that fast.

Moreover, there are no roads in the mountains, and in many places cavalrymen have to lead their horses over mountains and valleys. How come yesterday's news has arrived today?

I just used a little trick.

Qi Jiguang explained in detail: "Your Majesty, right now we have troops everywhere, and every guerrilla general leading the troops is equipped with a large telescope."

Your humble servant ordered them to prepare a large cardboard sign every ten li. In case of an urgent report, they would write the message on a piece of paper and then wave a large flag to signal it.

The generals in the distance would observe through large binoculars, then copy the information onto the cardboard next to them, and pass it on one by one. In this way, it could travel at least two hundred li (approximately 100 kilometers) in an hour.

This is somewhat similar to using beacon fires for warning, except that copying the urgent report takes a little longer than lighting a beacon fire.

If it were just a simple sentence, it could probably travel four or five hundred miles in an hour without any problem.

Upon hearing this, Emperor Wanli gave a thumbs up and said, "Yuanjing, this method is brilliant! I never thought of it."

Qi Jiguang quickly replied modestly, "Your Majesty, it's only because we have mobilized a large number of troops and guerrilla generals that we were able to use this method."

"If we hadn't surrounded Yongle Mountain so densely, like an iron barrel, this method wouldn't have worked at all."

This method isn't only applicable in this situation.

Wanli slowly shook his head and said, "Yuanjing, we can use this method to transmit urgent reports on the battlefield in the future."

Large telescopes are not actually that difficult to manufacture. With our current manufacturing capabilities, mass production is not a problem.

I was afraid that if we made too many of these things, and we lost one or two, the enemy would learn them. So I never ordered people to make or equip them in large quantities.

If we use this method in the future, things will be different; we can mass-produce large telescopes.

We can send specialized teams to the battlefield to transmit messages in this way, and we can even send specialized fast ships at sea to transmit messages in this way.

This is a great idea! I was having trouble figuring out how to transmit urgent reports over distances of thousands or even tens of thousands of miles. With this method, there's no problem.

When using this method to transmit messages, we can also simplify urgent reports as much as possible, so that they can be transmitted faster.

For example, the urgent report from Liangyu and Qiancheng could have been written as, "Qiancheng tribe has discovered the main force of the Jurchens."

As for how it was discovered, we can share the details later. Prioritize sending the most important information first; we should have received it by yesterday.

Do you still want to use this method to transmit it thousands or tens of thousands of miles?
That would require equipping the special communication teams with hundreds or even thousands of large telescopes!
If such a messenger team truly existed, then transmitting urgent reports during battles would indeed be much faster. Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise. In the future, we can indeed form a special team to use this method to transmit urgent reports on the battlefield."

Wanli nodded slightly, then suddenly realized something and beckoned, "Yuanjing, sit down and eat with us. Let's eat and chat."

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang quickly and carefully sat down, took a bite of a fresh rice dumpling, and then asked, "Your Majesty, Liangyu and Qiancheng have already discovered the main force of the Jurchens. Should we issue an order to have the nearby forces pursue them from the flanks and encircle and annihilate the main force of the Jurchens?"

Doing so might be inappropriate.

Wanli slowly shook his head and said, "Nurhaci is very cunning."

If we order several nearby troops to pursue them from the flanks, a huge gap will be created on both sides. If the Jurchens manage to escape through this gap, our originally straight-lined formation will be thrown into chaos.

Now that we've spotted the main Jurchen force, there's no need to rush. Just keep them at bay.

As long as our formation remains intact, the Jurchens will only be able to flee north. Even if they manage to reach the south bank of the Heilongjiang River, they will ultimately be unable to escape our encirclement and annihilation.

This makes sense.

Actually, I just wanted to save you money.

If we surround them now, we can defeat the main force of the Jurchens in ten to fifteen days at most.

This way, we can save at least 20 million taels.

Since you want to be absolutely sure, then proceed at a leisurely pace.

Qi Jiguang thought for a moment, then slowly nodded and said, "Your Majesty is wise. Then I will order someone to pass on the message that Liangyu and Qiancheng should slowly chase after them."

Wanli's move nearly drove Nurhaci to the point of vomiting blood.

After receiving the order, Qin Liangyu and Ma Qiancheng followed them at a leisurely pace, covering more than twenty li each day, chasing them relentlessly.

He was completely helpless, because they simply couldn't outrun them.

The White-Clad Soldiers seemed to never tire, able to travel more than twenty miles a day through towering mountains without any problem.

They're not good enough; many of them have already given up after only a few days of climbing.

The number of people falling behind is increasing.

Nurhaci was filled with alarm as he watched his army shrink day by day.

At this rate, there's no need to fight at all. They could be outrun just by being chased around!
He didn't even dare to turn around and shake off the Ming army behind him.

Because turning means they have to travel a lot more distance.

Moreover, he had already discovered that the Ming army was not pursuing them in one or two groups, but rather in thirty or forty groups advancing side by side.

At this point, they were exhausted from running more than 20 li a day, and turning around meant they were basically being handed over to the other Ming armies.

He could only run north, growing more panicked and desperate with each step.

This time he was truly desperate.

He couldn't understand why the Ming army in the south could run so fast.

We all grew up in the mountains, so why is there such a big difference between us?

This is actually closely related to the food provided.

They didn't have any military rations stored up; right now, they lived by fishing and hunting, and had to go fishing or hunting every day.

They also need to hunt enough prey along the way to have enough to eat.

The White Spear Soldiers are different.

They didn't need to hunt at all; the border cavalry would naturally deliver their provisions to them.

Moreover, they eat quite nutritious food, with staple foods, meat, and plenty of fruits and vegetables.

Eating like this will naturally give you plenty of energy.

(End of this chapter)